Episode39
Shadow Reavers Join the Conflict Fast-forward two months and a lot of shit happened. Most of it is detailed in various character threads but there were some galactic events that took place during the voyage: *The Spetznatz leader (cant remember name) contacted us and said that "that's twice you have destroyed my fleets. There won't be a third." Apparently, he's pissed. * The Reavers assault Kovinus space in-force. The entire Kovinus sector appears to be in danger of collapsing. * Xerxaw's successful implementation of the 'TSO' caste system provides a glowing example for the rest of Ekenwynne. As planned, the other worlds follow and a new era of prosperity and happiness begins. The Ekenwynne cooperative fund is used to bolster worlds in trouble for the good of all. * Slave revolts break out in Hubertus (perhaps because of the progress made in Ekenwynne). The Hubertus go about doing their usual 'crush the rebellion' schtick with practiced efficiency. ** We may have an opportunity here to peacefully convert Hubertus to the caste system using the Kovinus Reaver incursion as a stick and the prosperity of Ekenwynne as the carrot. When there's time Oz will see what he can do. * The Treewee settle across the galaxy. In Ekenwynne, they work out an arrangement of diplomatic embassies for their trees. This provides them special status with full diplomatic autonomy. In the Alliance worlds, they are welcomed as equals with an especially big celebration on Veilos (lots of nub nub) and a particular concentration of terraforming plant-matter on Ilveria. Soon there will be trees on every major planet in Alliance-Ekenwynne space allowing for unprecedented movement between worlds. Ranger Two leads one seed party deep into Kovinus space in what later becomes a strategically important region. * "01" takes more of an active role in affairs. In a logical manner he analyzes the needs of many planets (including Xerxaw) and dispatches robots with particularly suitable skills to help. These robots prove to a boon to many worlds. * The Reavers captured the crashed Petree where we fought the Necrites and recovered their queen-core. * Traxis the 'last dragon' paid us a surprise visit on Veilos during the Treewee homecoming celebration. You could have heard a nut drop in there while he was present. Not a nub-nub to be heard anywhere. Traxis confirmed that we had, in fact, 'poured' a sun onto the dragon-reaver homeworld annihilating almost all of the inhabitants. He was very pleased with us and promised to repay the favour some day. When asked about helping us get out to the SOTP he said he might be able to help when the time was right. He also told us that, when the time was right, he would be able to bestow third-tier specialties on us! * We installed the Necrite Petree Core at the Veilos university. Pete initiated academic research into its secrets. Oz, assigned the entire School of Business to focus on realizing economic and tangible benefits from any research done on the Core. * As an unexpected parting gift, Lydia gave us "core detectors" for our multi-tools with 15,000 light year ranges (one hex on the galactic map). That should prove handy. After much nub-nubbing we travelled to the Ark to speak with "01" and a Shadow Reaver: *We were a little concerned that "01" had some nefarious plan behind sending robots out across alliance space but after speaking with him his motivations seemed logical and benevolent. He either has the best poker face ever or he's genuine. Who can tell with robots... * "01" also reveals that he can monitor the gate network since they are all connected in some way. He agrees to tell us if there are any impending reaver attacks or movements we should be aware of. * At last, Oz got a chance to wear his 'tin foil hat' Reaver Filter ("the science is sound!") which allowed us to telepathically open up a dialogue with a Shadow Reaver as hoped. What was revealed during that dialogue was more than, I think, any of us expected. ** The Shadow Reaver we spoke to first was none other than the infamous Zargax who disappeared a millennia ago after writing some compelling treatise on the nature of souls and soul-balance. ** He was special in that he could focus on us even though he existed in multiple dimensions simultaneously and we in only one. ** Yes, Reavers are multi-dimensional beings which means they need to be defeated in all dimensions to truly claim victory ** The Progenitors also are similarly multi-dimensional. To become one you have to have the full tech and magic streams as prerequisites. The progenitors sound a bit fanatical and may end up being assholes - future reference when we free their pocket-fleet. ** Zargax built some of the Petree and knows where they all are. He helpfully shares that information with us. (I think there were 300 total but not sure). ** As NoJ warned us, the multiverse is falling apart. The Reavers are hooked on souls and will devour everything until its too late in their mistaken belief that they can 'stop whenever they want'. They have already destroyed some dimensions and then happily moved on to new ones by host-hopping. ** Across the entire multi-verse is a building of energy into a harmonic convergence. There has not been a build-up of this magnitude since the first Reaver War. ** If we don't stop the Reavers the entire multiverse will quite literally collapse into another big bang destroying everything (including the Shadow Reavers) ** NoJ was also right about having to release the souls in the SOTP (every Progenitor that has ever lived/died except for those in the pocket-fleet) in order to correct the balance. Zargax was pretty clear that it was best to defeat the reavers and then destroy the SOTP which should alleviate some moral dilemmas inherent in approaching it from the other way around ** Our universe is special for a number of reasons: dragons live here, SOTP is intact, we made contact with the Shadow Reavers ** Zargax explains that we must form a combined multi-dimensional coordinated effort to defeat the reavers in all dimensions. He offers the services of the Shadow Reavers to coordinate us across all the dimensions. ** He also explains that the SOTP is essential to victory but its in a decaying orbit with only days to go. He and his Shadow Reaver friends will 'slow time' around it but they can only hold it together for a couple of weeks. We need to find more Shadow Reavers to help. ** Furthermore, while the Reavers thought the SOTP was in Kovinus space (perhaps that's what they were really looking for) they most likely now know that its with the Redemption since they probably have captured the core from which we learned that crucial info. ** It's shaping up to be a race to the SOTP but its hundreds (thousands?) of light years away. We learn that the local cargo gate onboard could be rejiggered for direct transport if we could find a 'sister-gate' in our local gate system. BTW, it turns out that all the gates are connected and Zargax knows how they work (might even teach us someday 'when the time is right'). ** The Reavers have a way to 'tear space' to create their own instantaneous means of travel. They may use this to get to the Redemption so we must hurry. ** Crucial information about lots of things (likely including how to gate out to the Redemption) can be found in something called the 'central repository' which is inconveniently located in the Kovinus home system under imminent threat of Reaver incursion. It is a pocket dimension full of Progenitor goodies on an asteroid in the system somewhere. Petree Cores may also have valuable information. ** We must acquire the 'central repository' but we must delay the Reaver's or they will own Kovinus before we can get there. ** Zargax also reveals that the planet Sable which just fell to the Reavers has a 'Reaver planet' there. Apparently, Reavers sometimes decide to become planets and then roam around harvesting souls when not living off their own 'soul farms'. In order to secure the help of the Shadow Reavers we all learn Spirit Lore. It takes a block to work with the Reavers to get their attention and help them focus on a single dimension. Most of the party teaches Shadow Reavers while Oz contacts the Reaver Security Council for an emergency session. During that session he warns of the Reaver Planet and a plan is hatched to attack the Reaver Planet when it chases the Ascendent fleet to Boron-C where we wait in ambush with the Alliance fleet. Luckily, we have a Tree Gate only 10 days away! That's pretty much where we left things... 44 Generic 11 Generic for the logger. . Back to Space Junk Log Category:Space Junk